


The Rest of Our Life

by olddarkmachine



Series: 12 Days of ODM [2]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: 12 days of odm, Alzheimer's Disease, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Older Characters, entire life au, is that a thing?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-13 23:37:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12994995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olddarkmachine/pseuds/olddarkmachine
Summary: When it all began, he had been nothing but iron and rage. Black Steel Gajeel hid his truths behind a thick curtain of constant anger and stoic loyalty that had led him to making what he would later consider the biggest mistake of his life.That mistake, was named Levy McGarden.





	The Rest of Our Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a part of the 12 Days of ODM! I took 12 prompts and will be rolling them out over the next 12 days leading up to Christmas :)
> 
> Dedicated to: [@dizzyleaf](dizzyleaf.tumblr.com)
> 
> Prompt: Old!Gajevy

_Can you tell me a story?_

 

When it all began, he had been nothing but iron and rage. Black Steel Gajeel hid his truths behind a thick curtain of constant anger and stoic loyalty that had led him to making what he would later consider the biggest mistake of his life. 

 

That mistake, was named Levy McGarden.

 

She had been a small thing made up entirely of light and the greatness of an unending sky. His orders had been perfectly clear. 

 

Snuff out Fairy Tail’s light.

 

So he had. With reckless abandon and the ferocity of a midwestern tempest, he’d marred that sky and then left her hanging from a tree for all to see.

 

When he had done it, he hadn’t realized that she would become the most important thing in his life. His own personal light to lead him from the darkness that he had so readily made his home in place of the one he’d lost. Levy then became that home, even after he’d strung her up like a macabre offering in hopes of using her against her friends and family.

 

She was his best mistake.

 

_Did she forgive him?_

 

There was one thing that Gajeel had never understood about “good” guys. They always somehow found it within themselves to forgive. Even when that forgiveness wasn’t deserved. Gajeel certainly hadn’t warranted the absolution that he’d received, not only from the guild that he had worked so hard to help tear down, but also from the mage with the summer sky trapped in her hair.

 

When he had sought her out in hopes of showing her he would try everything in his power to ensure she knew he would never be any harm to her again, he had never considered he’d be met with her kind mercy. Somehow, her softened honey gaze had hurt more than the weary one he’d been met with when he’d first shown up at the guild. 

 

Gajeel was accustomed to anger. Had been on the receiving end of harsh words and cutting admonishments so often that they almost didn’t effect him anymore. It had given him expectations of bitter words, irate accusations and even some form of physical aggression. Instead, Levy handed him her fragile forgiveness in the form of timid words, soft gazes and, eventually, her unwavering friendship.

 

Not much time needed to pass before Gajeel realized that the feeling of a thousand frenzied butterflies fluttering against his rib cage was, in fact, the growing affection he harbored for Fairy Tail’s light. 

 

He felt it in the caress of her smile as she spoke to him, the upturn of her petal lips sending a jolt through his chest.

 

Felt it in the gentle nudge of her arm against his when they sat too close in the guild hall, Levy unaware of the way the touch had sent shockwaves into the horde of butterflies that rattled against their confines.

 

Gajeel even felt it in the sinister electricity that coated his tongue with a bitter taste when her attention was spared on one of the many others that deserved it more than he ever did.

 

While Levy had handed him her forgiveness with both hands, he had handed her his heart.

 

 

_How’d she feel about him?_

 

Levy was never good about hiding her emotions. Even though she tried, they almost always found a way to reveal themselves, either in the form of the pale dusting of a blush over her cheeks or a stray sparkle in her eye whenever she turned her gaze on the dragon slayer. It had been sheer luck that he somehow managed to miss every single emotion that had given away her feelings. 

 

Even when she’d blatantly implied her emotions, dropping hints about going to dances together, or going out of her way to join him on a job, Gajeel seemed to turn a blind eye towards the obvious answer. That she cared for him.

 

What she didn’t know, was that his obliviousness was carefully constructed in an ill attempt to guard his own heart. For what she seemed to be unaware of, was his own feelings that he wore like a chip on his shoulder. Bared only in the soft words and gentle gazes he reserved only for her, Gajeel had written her love letters in the form of quiet protection and gilded friendship all the while keeping her at arms reach to avoid the inevitable. 

 

He had no place in her world. If there was one thing that he knew, it was that Levy deserved better than he could ever be, no matter how good he worked to make himself. Instead, he would resign himself to being nothing more than a friend. It was still more than he ever deserved, but he was a selfish man, and he could not deny himself that much.

 

That all changed one evening when an angry fist had beat itself against the wood of his door. Standing on the other side of the brazen sound had been Levy, with her flushed cheeks and bright eyes, her sharp gaze only marred by the light veil of the alcohol that had coursed through her blood.

 

“Why?” Was all she asked, stepping into his space and sending his heart into his throat. It took longer than he cared to admit to swallow the beating lump back down so that he could answer.

 

“Why what, Shrimp?” 

 

He was frozen as she took another step forward, the heat from her skin heating his own as a blush stretched all the way down his neck at the proximity. The gold gleam of her stare cut straight through the flesh and bone and down to the aching muscle buried in his chest.

 

“Why am I not good enough for you?” Levy’s voice had cracked mercilessly over the words as they hit their mark. There had never been a question of if she was good enough for him. The fact of it was that she was too good for him. Everything that he had done up until that point had been in an attempt to show her so much. It hadn’t been until she’d stood before him with watery eyes and demanding answers that he realized he’d only managed to hurt her yet again. 

 

Only this time, it was an easy fix.

 

A blaze lit low in his belly, racing through his veins and filling him with a heat that burned his skin as he leant down to close the small distance between them. His lips had caught hers with a fevered passion as if he could tell her everything he needed to say with the contact. Catching the soft sound that left her on his tongue, he swallowed the mewl and pressed further as his arms wrapped around her waist.

 

Everything was fire and light and Levy as he had felt her small hands find their way into his hair, tangling in the strands and anchoring herself to him.

 

It was the first of many kisses that night, as they left each others marks on skin, writing out all the reasons of how the other was deserving across flesh with their lips and teeth. 

 

_Were they married?_

 

What Gajeel would never admit, was that the day of his wedding was the most terrifying he had ever lived through. Bile had coated his tongue with its sour taste as he’d stood at the front of the aisle, every instinct in him telling him to run.

 

Run from the eyes that stared at him, wondering how he’d managed to get where he was.

 

Run from the suffocating cognizance that he was undeserving.

 

Run from the inevitability that Levy would realize he wasn’t what she wanted.

 

It was stupid, really, for him to feel this way. Levy had never given him any reason to doubt how she felt, yet the fear still lurked under the surface, tainting every shred of happiness he felt with its darkness. Gajeel had never done anything in his life to deserve the luck he had when she had breathed the single word that changed their lives.

 

_Yes_.

 

_Yes_ , she would marry him. _Yes_ , she would be his forever.

 

_Yes_ , he would be hers.

 

At least, for as long as it took for her to realize her mistake.

 

His instincts told him to run while he could. Nothing good can stay, especially not for him. The war waged deep in his gut as he stood at the alter, their friends that had become their family waiting expectantly, though whether for Levy’s appearance or his disappearance, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t until the doors on the opposite end of the aisle flew open that the churning despair battering against his insides dissipated completely.

 

Levy was a vision, shrouded in white and glowing as if she was sunshine personified. Her brightness chased away the shadows that were casting their doubt, banishing them with a single smile from the other side of the room.

 

She was everything good. And she was his.

 

The ceremony was a blur from that moment she’d stepped over the threshold, his focus on nothing other than the way her honey eyes shined as she looked up at him as if she was seeing her future. It was then, that Levy said the two words that would once again change his life. They moved the mountains that had been erected when he’d been nothing but a low life with nothing to live for, effectively changing the course that the fates had mapped out for him.

 

Those words painted a glimpse of his new life before him, filled with nothing but her bright smile. She was his. And he was hers.

 

_I do._

 

_Were they happy?_

 

_Gajeel’s eyes were liquid garnet as they looked over Levy, her once blue hair now a stark white, and her honey eyes filled with earnest intrigue, unaware that the story he told had been their own._

 

_When the doctors had warned them of what was to come, her brilliant mind slowly deteriorating and taking every memory they had made together with it, Levy had given him the option to walk away. Absolved him of the very stoic loyalty that had led him to meeting her in the first place in an attempt to protect him._

 

_As if he had been the one that needed protecting._

 

_It had been the worst fight they’d ever had, that night after the diagnosis. Levy, fighting for Gajeel to leave so he wouldn’t need to suffer her disease._

 

Will I really be the one suffering, when I don’t even know what’s going on? _She had asked, tears dragging vicious lines of moisture over her cheeks and painting her features a dusky scarlet._

 

As long as I have you, I won’t be suffering _, he’d replied, his own voice so thick it had choked him. When Gajeel had stood at that alter and proclaimed himself to be hers, in sickness and in health, he had meant it. Even when the signs started to show in brief glimpses of lost words and misplaced keys, he had made his love known to her in an attempt to make up for all the time that would be lost to them._

 

What will you do, _she had asked one night, looking up at him from the halo of his arms and glowing like a sliver of moonlight,_ when I don’t remember us?

 

_He could still remember the feel of her fingers as they’d traced the outline of his collar, waiting for an answer._

 

I’ll tell you our story everyday _, he’d said as he dropped a firm kiss to the crown of her greying hair._ And each time, I’ll make you remember our love _._

 

_That promise had seemed like a lifetime ago, before they were both stooped with wrinkles etched into their flesh as proof of the smiles they had both once worn. Each time he told the story, it became a bit harder. In the beginning, Levy would recognize the tale, sometimes even finishing his sentences or showing a glimmer of the blue haired mage from her youth. As time wore on, and her memory faded still, her moments of realization grew sparse before one day, they stopped coming altogether._

 

_Now, sitting before him, was his Levy. Only, she didn’t know who he was or the life they had shared together._

 

_Her thinned lips were pulled upwards in an encouraging smile as she reached a shaking hand out to him, taking his in her grasp and giving it a reassuring squeeze._

 

_“Were they happy?” She asked again. The salt of his tears burnt the corners of his eyes as he tried to return her smile._

 

_Were they happy?_

 

_In his memory, they would always be happy, tucked away in the happy ending that they had truly deserved. One where Levy’s mind wouldn’t have begun to pick itself apart. Where Gajeel would have ignored his orders from the Phantom Lords, and instead asked the glowing woman her name. Maybe then, they could have had more time. Trapped within the vestiges of his memories, he and Levy would live happily forever._

 

_But were they happy now?_

 

_Slowly, he raised his hand with hers still grasping softly at his fingers and brought her knuckles to his mouth. Gajeel brushed his lips over the paper thin skin before he spoke._

 

_“Yes. They were very happy. For the rest of their days.”_

 

_The answer earned him a small contented sound as he brought their hands back down, the both of them falling into a comfortable silence as they sat side-by-side. Moments stretched as he held her hand, rubbing the pad of his thumb over her knuckles as he lost himself in thought. He didn’t know how much time had passed before she spoke again._

 

_Can you tell me a story?_


End file.
